shows them the method, and inspires them with the resolution to accomplish it themselves. He is the real benefactor, who, instead of beating down in his beneficiaries the feeling of self-reliance, helps them to help themselves. So Christ is our Saviour, not because he does for us what we can, and ought to do for ourselves, but because he has shown us the way, and illustrated the glory of the Divine Life, and is continually aiding and encouraging us to seek it.

This is the one method of salvation through Christ. The New-Testament reveals but one kind of salva tion-a salvation from ignorance, error, sin, and all their lamentable consequences: and this salvation is everywhere governed by the same laws, and depend ent on the same essential conditions. Those who earnestly, devoutly seek it, find it wherever they are; while none will attain it until they seek it, no matter where they may be. And if it be alleged that Eternal Life is thus made the result of works, and not of grace, the reply is that it is of both works and grace;-just as the harvest which crowns the year-just as the knowledge that rewards the patient student—just as any virtuous habit or principle-temperance, honesty, charity, piety-is the result of both labor and grace. It is by both; for while the injunction is, "Work out your own salvation," it is also, for our encouragement, affirmed that, "God worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

There is no spiritual good, then, no faith, or

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hope, or love, worthy the name, which is not the effect of labor. If we are ever saved from our sins, if we ever attain a condition of harmony with God, as we hope to do, it will be only by the consecration of ourselves to the highest and noblest purposes: only by a complete self-surrender to the Father through the Son, coupled with a vigorous and unceasing endeavor to do the Divine will. There is no celestial rail-road from earth to heaven, over which passengers can be carried at half-price. "In the sweat of our faces" must we eat that spiritual bread, which cometh down from heaven, but once eating it, we shall hunger no more.

And now, brethren, having seen that labor is the condition of all excellence, in every department of life, does it not become us, and especially those of us who are young in years, seriously to ask ourselves, What are we living for? Have we any object in life? Or, are we trifling away the precious moments as they pass, murmuring at providential arrangements, and sighing listlessly for some portion of that good luck, which we imagine has fallen to others? If so, let us, from this instant, cease from a course so unwise; forbear impugning the partiality of Providence, and rise up and go to the work to which we are called. And though it be in the sweat of our faces, in the weariness of our minds, or even in the agony of our souls, we shall eat bread the bread of life, of heaven, of God. O Thou most Merciful and Mighty, "evermore give us this bread."

LET US PRAY.

O Thou who art the Inspirer of all good purposes, and the Helper of every earnest soul, we bless Thee for all our faculties physical, mental, and spiritual. We bless Thee for the means provided for their culture, and for the encouragement given us to seek the highest good. How tenderly dost Thou solicit us to walk in the way of life! O may Thy solicitations not be in vain.

Come and dwell Thou in us, giving us, in the peace, harmony, and activity of our powers, the assurance that we are the adopted children of God, and Thine shall be the praise forevermore. AMEN.

VANQUISHED TEMPTATION.

BY REV. J. W. DENNIS. SCRIPTURE LESSON, MATTHEW IV.

And behold, angels came and ministered unto him. MATTHEW IV. 11.

THIS is said of our Divine Master, and is recorded as having occurred immediately after the temptation in the wilderness. The faith, the loyalty, the persistence of our Lord had been put to the test, and he remained in tranquil possession of the field. Every solicitation and every bribe had been resisted; and, as the record runs, "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

I do not, at this time, propose any lengthy consideration of the Saviour's temptation. But a few words on this subject, and on the nature of temptation in general, will not be out of place as preliminary to our main design.

The temptation of Christ was like that to which every human soul is subjected. It was nothing different, nothing aside from the ordinary trial of human virtue. So the apostle declares and I would have you mark his words when he says, that "we have not an high priest which cannot be

touched with the feeling of our infirmities," since he "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." In this was the only difference between him and us: He was without sin. But how great this difference! The temptation is in substance the same, in all points; but while the Saviour triumphed, and grew into a nobler character, we at least too generally - -waver, yield, are defeated and fall.

Temptation is necessary in the cultivation of human virtue. Singular as it may seem, the most genuine moral excellence is attainable by us only through this test. The door into the temple of robust and vigorous character opens from the desert, and can be approached only through the wilderness. So the Master entered it; and so entered the patriarchs and prophets of the olden time; the apostles and martyrs of the early church; the brave company of the reformers; the worthies of every age, whose virtues have in anywise benefited or adorned the world.

Virtue is something more than mere innocence. It is positive goodness. Innocence is simply negative goodness, the state in which man is before temptation: Virtue is that state in which he is after having successfully resisted temptation: Sin is that state in which he is after having yielded to temptation.

An illustration will perhaps present this more clearly. Here are two children, infants as yet, sporting like tender lambs in the sheltered fold of